Table of contents

Approximate read time: 30 minutes

The House of Lords is scheduled to debate the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 on 23 October 2025. This debate fulfils a government commitment made during the bill’s passage to have a debate on the act within six months of it being passed.

1. Background to the act

The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 was fast-tracked through both Houses of Parliament on 12 April 2025. The government introduced the legislation in response to concerns about the future of British Steel Ltd, which operates the UK’s two remaining blast furnaces at its site in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.[1]

1.1 Challenges in the wider steel industry

British Steel Ltd has been impacted in recent years by various issues that have also affected the wider UK steel industry. The UK steel sector has struggled to remain competitive in the face of challenges such as a global oversupply of steel, tariff uncertainty, high energy costs, and the investment needed to decarbonise steel production.[2]

1.1.1 Supply and demand

China dominates the global supply of steel. In 2023, China produced 1,019 mn tonnes of steel, 54% of global production.[3] In the same year, the UK produced 5.6 million tonnes, 0.3% of the world’s total.

Reduced demand for steel in recent years has resulted in a global surplus of steel, which has also pushed down steel prices.[4] Eurofer, an organisation that represents the European steel industry, has said that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 was also responsible for “unprecedented increases in energy prices and production costs” for the steel industry.[5] It explained that overall demand for steel had reduced due to “growing global economic uncertainty, higher interest rates […] and growing uncertainty surrounding US tariffs”. Eurofer said steel demand was “not expected to improve substantially before the first quarter of 2026, and consumption volumes are expected to remain far below pre-pandemic levels”.[6]

1.1.2 Tariffs

Tariff uncertainty has had specific impacts on the UK steel industry.[7] In February 2025, US President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on all imports of steel into the US.[8] The tariffs took effect in March 2025. In 2024, the UK exported 180,000 tonnes of steel to the US, worth £370mn.[9] This accounted for 7% of the UK’s total steel exports by volume and 9% by value.

In May 2025, the UK and US agreed an ‘Economic and prosperity deal’.[10] This sought to reduce some of the higher tariffs on specific UK goods, though it would not remove the 10% baseline tariff the Trump administration has levied on all countries. Announcing the deal, the UK government said the 25% tariff on steel had been negotiated “down to zero”.[11] However, the agreement has not been fully implemented and at the time of writing the US 25% tariff on UK steel remains in place.

In June 2025, President Trump increased the US tariff on steel imports to 50%, but with an exemption for the UK tariff to remain at 25%.[12] On 16 September 2025, it was reported that the UK government had paused plans to use President Trump’s state visit to the UK to seek the implementation of the steel tariff reduction to 0%.[13] The Financial Times reported that UK government sources had claimed that a permanent 25% steel tariff provided “certainty” for the steel industry, and a competitive advantage compared to countries subject to the 50% tariff.[14]

1.1.3 Energy costs

Steel production and processing is a highly energy-intensive process.[15] UK Steel, the trade association for the steel sector, has argued that high energy costs in the UK negatively impact the competitiveness of the industry.[16] Data from UK Steel for 2025/26 stated that UK steel producers pay up to 25% more for energy than their competitors in France and Germany, which adds £26mn in costs per year to the industry.

1.1.4 Decarbonisation

The steel industry is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.[17] In 2023, it was responsible for over 13% of UK greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing, and 2.2% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions. This was a high proportion, given the industry accounted for 0.1% of UK GDP in 2024.[18] Decarbonisation of steelmaking is an important part of reaching the government’s target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by 2050.

Conversely, the UK government has said the steel industry has an important role in the country achieving its net zero ambitions, as significant amounts of steel would be required for the manufacture of renewable energy infrastructure such as wind turbines and solar panels.[19]

British Steel at Scunthorpe previously had plans to transition to greener production methods, such as replacing its blast furnaces with electrically powered furnaces (see the following section of this briefing).

1.2 British Steel Ltd

The initial impetus for the introduction of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 was concerns about whether British Steel’s two remaining blast furnaces at Scunthorpe would remain operational.[20] In recent years, the company had faced various challenges. In 2019, it entered into insolvency under its previous owners, the private equity firm Greybull Capital.[21] In 2020, British Steel was bought by the Chinese company Jingye Group.[22]

The blast furnaces at Scunthorpe are the UK’s only remaining production capacity for making primary, or “virgin”, steel. Blast furnaces work by heating iron ore and coke (from coal) to very high temperatures.[23] The resulting molten iron collects at the base of the furnace, where it is released. The molten iron is then used to make steel. As a result, blast furnaces must be kept heated and fed with raw materials, otherwise the molten metal solidifies at the base of the furnace. If blast furnaces are switched off, making them operational again can be complex and costly.[24]

An alternative method of making steel is to use an electric arc furnace (EAF).[25] These use electricity to heat the furnace and melt down scrap metal. As no iron ore processing is required and no coal is burned, EAFs tend to have much lower carbon emissions than blast furnaces (though this depends on the energy source used to generate the electricity).

As part of British Steel’s plan to decarbonise the operations in Scunthorpe, Jingye had been preparing to close the two blast furnaces and replace them with a single electric arc furnace in Scunthorpe and one at its site in Teesside, investing £1.25bn in the transition.[26]

However, the Financial Times reported that by September 2024 Jingye was “preparing to abandon the electric arc furnaces and instead bring forward the closure of the blast furnaces” at Scunthorpe.[27]

In September 2024, the then business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the House of Commons that the government’s preferred option was a transition plan that would see the blast furnaces remain working while the EAFs were built.[28]

However, talks between British Steel and the government stalled, and in March 2025 Jingye announced a consultation on closing the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe.[29] It said the operation of the blast furnaces was no longer viable, and it was incurring losses of £700,000 a day. The closure of the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe would have put 2,700 jobs at risk. It has also been reported that if the blast furnaces were switched off the UK would be the only G7 country without the ability to make primary steel.[30]

On 7 April 2025, the then minister at the Department for Business and Trade, Sarah Jones, said in response to an urgent question in the House of Commons that British Steel’s owner had rejected a “generous offer of public funding” and the conditions attached.[31] She said a commercial path was the government’s preferred option, however, all options, including nationalisation, remained on the table.

On 11 April 2025, Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that the events at British Steel meant the “future of British steel hangs in the balance”.[32] He called the situation a threat to the UK’s “economic and national security”. He said that Parliament would be recalled on Saturday 12 April 2025 to pass legislation to give the government powers to do “everything possible to stop the closure of these blast furnaces”.

2. Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025

The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on Saturday 12 April 2025 and was fast-tracked through Parliament as emergency legislation. It was passed by both Houses unamended and it received royal assent that day.

The government also published explanatory notes to accompany the bill.

2.1 Powers in the act

The act gives the secretary of state powers to intervene in steel undertakings in England that are at risk of temporary or permanent closure. A brief summary of the act’s main provisions follows.

Section 2 of the act gives the secretary of state powers to issue directions for a steel company to use certain assets in a specific way or take certain actions to keep those assets operational, where the government considers this to be in the public interest.[33] The direction may include entering into or cancelling contracts, managing the company, making payments, and sharing information with the secretary of state. It may also require refraining from insolvency proceedings.

Section 3 provides that, if the company fails to comply with a direction or acts in a way that could frustrate its purpose, the secretary of state may take control of the company’s assets.[34] Once control is assumed, the secretary of state may take any steps necessary to maintain the operation of the undertaking. These include entering the premises, preventing disposal of assets, managing operations, and signing contracts.

Section 4 makes non-compliance with a direction issued by the secretary of state a criminal offence, subject to fines and/or up to two years’ imprisonment on conviction.

The act also provides legal protection for those acting under government direction and it provides that government expenses incurred in exercising the act’s powers can be recovered from the steel company as a debt.

Section 7 enables the secretary of state to make regulations establishing a compensation scheme and allowing for payments to be made to a steel undertaking for any loss incurred as a result of complying with ministerial directions.[35]

2.2 The bill’s passage through Parliament

At second reading in the House of Commons there was broad cross-party support for the bill, given the circumstances at British Steel. [36]  However, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs called for a sunset clause to limit the duration of the government’s powers to intervene in the steel industry.[37] Reform UK called for the immediate nationalisation of British Steel.[38]

The then business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, argued that a sunset clause would reduce the government’s leverage over a company affected by the act’s powers. He said he did not want the powers “a minute more than is necessary”, but the government did not know the “timeframe for which they will be required”.[39]

Later in the debate, then minister Sarah Jones stated:

I confirm that we will repeal the legislation as quickly as we can […] I also make this pledge to the House: we will update the House regularly and the secretary of state has committed to do so every four working weeks. I hope that that will give the House reassurance.[40]

At House of Commons committee stage no time was available to debate amendments.[41] The bill was therefore reported without amendment and passed.

Opening the second reading debate in the House of Lords, the then parliamentary under secretary at the Department for Business and Trade, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, reiterated the urgency for the legislation to safeguard jobs and the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe.[42]

There was broad cross-party support for the bill. However, peers raised concerns about the scope of the powers granted to the government. Some peers also called for a sunset clause to be added to the bill and for opportunities for further parliamentary scrutiny.[43]

At committee stage, in response to amendments tabled on the issues raised at second reading, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch argued against demands for a sunset clause.[44] She said a fixed sunset clause “would not be practical and would cause an unacceptable amount of uncertainty” for the government in terms of how it could intervene at British Steel or another steel company in the future.

In terms of ongoing parliamentary scrutiny, Baroness Jones committed that the government would update Parliament every four sitting weeks on how the powers in the act had been used.[45] She also committed to have a “fuller debate on the floor of the House” on the operation of the act within six months.

In response to the assurances from the minister, the amendments were either withdrawn or not moved. The bill was reported without amendment, passed and received royal assent.

3. Government updates on British Steel and powers used under the act

3.1 Oral statement, April 2025

On 22 April 2025, the then minister, Sarah Jones, delivered an oral statement in the House of Commons on British Steel and how the powers in the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 had been used.[46] She summarised how the government had used the powers as follows:

We have wasted no time in enacting [the] powers and taking the urgent action required to keep the blast furnaces lit at Scunthorpe. We have secured the raw materials needed to keep the blast furnaces operating, and we continue to work at pace to secure a steady pipeline of materials. Officials were on site to help British Steel within hours of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 becoming law […][47]

Ms Jones said that British Steel had confirmed that both blast furnaces at Scunthorpe would remain operational and that the company had “cancelled the redundancy consultations started by Jingye”.[48]

In terms of British Steel’s longer-term future, Ms Jones said “all options are on the table”, but she said the government’s preferred option was that the company needed a “modernisation programme, ideally with a private sector partner”. She also stated that the government had met officials from Jingye, and that they would maintain a dialogue as the government seeks to “find a way forward in the national interest that safeguards steelmaking and protects jobs”.[49]

In addition, Ms Jones said the government intended to “look beyond any individual company and ensure a secure and thriving future for the whole steel sector”.

The statement was repeated in the House of Lords on 24 April 2025.[50]

3.2 Four-weekly written statements

Further to the government’s commitment to update Parliament every four sitting weeks, written statements were laid on the following dates:

The written statement in May 2025 said government officials continued to be onsite at British Steel, with the priorities of “continuing production, remedying critical health and safety issues, and stabilising operations”.[51] The statement also said the government was developing an impact assessment and regulations under section 7 of the act. Section 7 of the act provides powers for the secretary of state to make regulations to create a compensation scheme for steel companies that are subject to the powers in the act.

The June 2025 written statement reiterated that redundancies at British Steel had been avoided and it said the company was “seeking to enrol its first apprentices in over three years”.[52] The government also said that British Steel had announced a £500mn supply contract with Network Rail. It would be the principal supplier to the rail network, supplying “between 70,000 and 80,000 tonnes of rail a year, all manufactured at Scunthorpe”.

The written statement in September 2025 confirmed that government officials continued to provide on-site support at British Steel.[53] It also said the work to produce an impact assessment and the regulations under section 7 was still ongoing. It stated that the cost to the taxpayer of interventions at British Steel totalled £180mn, provided for “working capital, covering items such as raw materials, salaries, and addressing unpaid bills, including SMEs [small- and medium-sized enterprises] in the supply chain”. The statement said details of the full costs would be included in the Department for Business and Trade’s annual accounts for 2025/26.

4. Committee scrutiny of the act

4.1 House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee

The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee published a short report on the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 on 7 May 2025.[54] The committee usually considers legislation at bill stage, but due to the bill being fast-tracked through Parliament the committee said it had undertaken post-legislative scrutiny of the act.[55]

The committee’s report raised concerns about section 7 of the act.[56] As referred to in section 2 of this briefing, section 7 of the act provides powers to the secretary of state to make regulations to pay compensation to steel undertakings subject to the special directions in the act. The regulations made under section 7 would be subject to the negative procedure. This means they would not need to be approved by Parliament, but would automatically come into effect unless a member of either House objected to the regulations within the objection period (40 sitting days).[57]

The committee said that the special directions (set out in section 2 of the act) that can be applied to a steel undertaking were of “extraordinary width”. It noted that failure to comply with the directions could result in criminal prosecution, two years in prison and/or unlimited fines. The committee said that, in light of the “extraordinary nature” of the obligations that could be placed on commercial organisations and the “potential magnitude” of the compensation payable, it was “surprised” that the regulations in section 7 would be subject to the negative procedure.[58]

The committee noted that the government had produced a delegated powers memorandum for the bill.[59] The committee set out the arguments the government had used in the memorandum to justify the negative procedure.[60] These included that the compensation scheme would “most often” be used to make “technical, administrative and procedural arrangements” for the payment of compensation, that it would not create offences or amend or repeal legislation, and that there was precedent for other compensation schemes established by negative procedure.

The committee said the government’s arguments were “unconvincing”.[61] The committee said this compensation scheme was unique as it involved a foreign company (in the case of Jingye Group) and therefore, given the “magnitude of the compensation”, the terms of the scheme were likely to be of “considerable public, parliamentary and international interest”.

The committee concluded that had there been sufficient time to report on the bill before enactment it would have recommended that regulations under section 7 be subject to the affirmative procedure.[62]

4.2 House of Lords Constitution Committee

On 8 May 2025, the House of Lords Constitution Committee published the report ‘Fast-track legislation and the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025’. The committee explained that, as the legislation had already been passed, its report focused on the “standards that ought to be adhered to during the passage of fast-track legislation”.[63]

The committee noted that its 2008 report on fast-track legislation, ‘Fast-track legislation: Constitutional implications and safeguards’, had concluded that there should be a “presumption in favour of the use of a sunset clause” in emergency legislation. The committee highlighted that no sunset clause or renewal procedure had been included in the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 and the government had not justified that decision in the bill’s explanatory notes.[64]

The committee also noted that during the act’s passage through Parliament the government had argued that a sunset clause would have caused an “unacceptable amount of uncertainty” in the operation of the legislation.[65] The committee said there were various ways to account for uncertainty while still having time-limited powers in legislation. The committee used the example of the Coronavirus Act 2020. This included a six-month parliamentary review of its provisions, at which time the House of Commons could agree a motion to extend its powers. The committee concluded that the government’s justification for not including a sunset clause or renewal procedure in the act was “unconvincing”.[66]

The report recommended:

The government should set out why it did not consider a renewal procedure for the powers to be appropriate. We also recommend that a renewal procedure be included in future fast-track legislation where a sunset clause is considered inappropriate due to ongoing uncertainty.

Furthermore, given the government’s intention for the provisions in this act to be temporary, it should set out the circumstances in which the powers in the act will be reviewed or repealed, and the process it intends to put in place for this. At future debates on the operation of the act, the House may wish to satisfy itself that these proposals are appropriate.[67]

The committee also made a recommendation related to post-legislative scrutiny. It said that any future information related to the use of powers in the act should be shared with the relevant parliamentary committees and “also made available to the House as a whole in a timely manner”.[68]

The government responded to the committee’s report in July 2025.[69]

The government defended the lack of a sunset clause in the act. It said:

The urgency of the circumstances at the Scunthorpe site warranted decisive government intervention to stabilise the situation. Had there been a time-bound mechanism in the Steel industry (Special Measures) Act 2025, the government’s ability to provide this ongoing stabilisation for the time required would have been undermined.[70]

However, the government said in its view the powers in the act were “inherently temporary in nature”. On the timing of any review or repeal of the act, the government said:

We are continuing discussions with British Steel’s owners to explore the potential for a mutually agreeable way forward. This process must progress before decisions can be taken on the timing of any review or repeal of the measures in the [act].[71]

On providing further information to Parliament, the response reiterated the government’s commitment to update Parliament every four weeks. It also said that further information on the financial impacts of the act would be included in the Department for Business and Trade’s accounts for 2025/26.

5. Government policy and forthcoming steel strategy

The Labour Party manifesto for the 2024 general election committed to spend £2.5bn to “rebuild our steel industry”.[72] Since taking office, the government has stated this £2.5bn would be invested through the national wealth fund and it would be additional to the £500mn already committed by the previous Conservative government for the regeneration of steel production facilities at Port Talbot, Wales.[73]

In September 2024, the then business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said the government would publish a steel strategy by spring 2025.[74] He said the strategy would “look seriously at the options to improve steel capabilities across the whole supply chain, including for primary steelmaking in the UK”.

Between February and March 2025, the government ran a consultation on the forthcoming steel strategy.[75] In July 2025, the government said it would publish the strategy “later this year”. It said the strategy would:

  • establish a clear and ambitious long-term vision for the steel industry, in partnership with business and workers
  • set out the actions needed to achieve that vision
  • identify gaps in current capabilities and assess future UK steel demand, helping to inform investment decisions which will support economic growth
  • set out what is needed to create a competitive business environment in the UK with the aim of attracting new private investment to expand UK steelmaking capability and capacity[76]

In response to a written question on 4 September 2025, the government repeated that the strategy would be published “later in the year”.[77] At the time of writing, it has not yet been published.

6. Recent developments

The government has stated that the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 was not intended to apply only to British Steel.[78] The wider steel industry in the UK continues to face challenges such as those described in section 1 of this briefing. In September 2025, the BBC reported that of the six companies that produce steel in the UK, four were receiving some form of government financial support.[79]

The latest steel company to be in distress was Speciality Steels UK (SSUK), part of Liberty Steel Group. SSUK employs approximately 1,400 people at sites in Rotherham, Stocksbridge, Wednesbury and Brinsworth.[80] In August 2025, the insolvency court issued a compulsory winding up order for SSUK.[81]

The government has said it would “stand with the affected steelworkers” at SSUK, but also made clear that the insolvency was being managed by the independent official receiver.[82] The government said the situation at British Steel had been “fundamentally different” to that at SSUK due to British Steel’s operation of the UK’s last remaining blast furnaces. It therefore claimed it would not have been appropriate to use the powers in the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 to intervene in the case of SSUK.[83]

In August 2025, the BBC reported that the government was in negotiations with Jingye Group to find a new buyer for British Steel.[84] The BBC said the search for a new buyer had “stalled”, as Jingye had “demanded hundreds of millions in taxpayer money” for the assets at Scunthorpe. The BBC claimed Jingye had “rejected a £500mn offer from the government in March [2025], with sources suggesting they were holding out for something closer to £1bn”.

During the second reading of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill in the House of Commons, David Davis (Conservative MP for Goole and Pocklington) asked the then business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, if the government would ensure it paid “not more than a penny” for British Steel if it was nationalised.[85]  Mr Reynolds said if the company was nationalised the government would pay the “fair market value” for the assets.[86] In British Steel’s case, Mr Reynolds said the market value was “effectively zero”.

In a separate report on 3 September 2025, the BBC claimed the UK government was “in favour of merging all the UK’s steelmakers” into one organisation, but it was not in favour of nationalising that new entity.[87] The BBC said any merger would “need the backing of the [companies] current owners”, but ministers had “told the sector they believe a merger is the best way to be sustainable in the long-term”.

The BBC also reported that Jonathan Reynolds would visit China to “negotiate with Jingye officials” about the future of British Steel.[88] On 5 September 2025, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, undertook a Cabinet re-shuffle and Peter Kyle was appointed as the new secretary of state for business and trade.[89]

Peter Kyle visited China between 10 and 11 September 2025 to co-chair the UK-China Joint Economic and Trade Commission.[90] An update on the visit published by the Department for Business and Trade on 12 September 2025 made no reference to any discussions about steel or with officials from Jingye Group.[91]

7. Read more

Photo by yasin hemmati on Unsplash

References

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  2. House of Commons Library, ‘UK steel industry: Statistics and policy’, 11 April 2025. Return to text
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  4. House of Commons Library, ‘UK steel industry: Statistics and policy’, 11 April 2025, p 15. Return to text
  5. Eurofer, ‘Economic and steel market outlook 2025–2026: Q3 report’, September 2025, p 3. Return to text
  6. As above. Return to text
  7. UK Steel, ‘Trump orders 25% tariffs on UK steel imports to the US, without exemption’, 11 February 2025. Return to text
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  56. As above. Return to text
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  62. As above, p 7. Return to text
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  65. As above, p 2. Return to text
  66. As above. Return to text
  67. As above. Return to text
  68. As above, p 3. Return to text
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  70. As above, p 2. Return to text
  71. As above. Return to text
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  77. House of Commons, ‘Written question: Iron and steel: Manufacturing industries (73981)’, 4 September 2025. Return to text
  78. HC Hansard, 12 April 2025, col 841. Return to text
  79. BBC News, ‘Ministers favour merging all UK steel companies into one’, 3 September 2025. Return to text
  80. House of Commons, ‘Written statement: Liberty Speciality Steels UK contingent liability (HCWS898)’, 1 September 2025. Return to text
  81. BBC News, ‘UK's third-largest steelworks collapses into government control’, 21 August 2025. Return to text
  82. HC Hansard, 2 September 2025, col 145–7. Return to text
  83. HC Hansard, 2 September 2025, col 145–7. Return to text
  84. BBC News, ‘UK says British Steel’s Chinese owners demanding millions’, 7 August 2025. Return to text
  85. HC Hansard, 12 April 2025, col 840. Return to text
  86. HC Hansard, 12 April 2025, col 840. Return to text
  87. BBC News, ‘Ministers favour merging all UK steel companies into one’, 3 September 2025. Return to text
  88. As above. Return to text
  89. Prime Minister’s Office, ‘Ministerial appointments: September 2025’, 5 September 2025. Return to text
  90. Department for Business and Trade, ‘UK to hold first trade talks with China in 7 years’, 9 September 2025. Return to text
  91. Department for Business and Trade, ‘Secretary of State for Business and Trade visit to China factsheet’, 12 September 2025. Return to text